User Instructions Tracker

Purpose

Maintain an explicitly authorized durable ledger of cross-task directives while keeping current instruction truth separate from historical fulfillment evidence.

Authority and Artifact Policy

Activation alone never authorizes creating, migrating, or updating a tracker.

Canonical Path

Required file:

1. prefer user-instructions.md at repository root

Resolve the active path in this order:

1. an explicit path configured by the user or repository
2. an existing root user-instructions.md
3. one existing configured legacy path, including skills/user-instructions.md
4. the root path only when the user explicitly asks to initialize or record a ledger

Do not create a second ledger, copy a legacy ledger, or migrate paths without explicit authorization. Once resolved, use one canonical path for the task.

Recordability Gate

Record an instruction only when it is intended to survive the current task or conversation, such as:

1. repository policy or a durable constraint
2. an ongoing priority or ownership decision
3. a cross-task commitment whose fulfillment must be audited
4. an explicit user request to record it

Do not record ordinary requests, transient implementation details, speculative preferences, or inferred instructions.

Current Truth and History

Maintain two concepts:

1. Current Directives: only directives that still govern future work
2. Fulfillment History: evidence of what happened under a directive at a point in time

A done historical row proves past fulfillment; it does not prove the instruction is still current.

Directive lifecycle values:

1. active: current and applicable
2. superseded: replaced by a newer directive, with successor identified
3. stale: applicability or evidence can no longer be confirmed
4. retired: intentionally no longer applicable

Allowed status values:

These values describe fulfillment history, not directive lifecycle:

1. pending
2. in_progress
3. blocked
4. done
5. won_t_do

Never delete or rewrite history to make a superseded directive appear current.

Update Workflow

1. Confirm the instruction is durable and recording is authorized.
2. Resolve the single active ledger path.
3. Compare the new directive with current active directives.
4. Mark a conflicting older directive superseded and link its successor.
5. Update current truth independently from fulfillment status.
6. Attach concrete evidence only for work actually performed.
7. Mark uncertainty stale rather than guessing.

Conditional Reference

Read Tracker Schema and Lifecycle only when creating an explicitly requested ledger, migrating an authorized legacy ledger, changing lifecycle state, or performing an audit.

Routing Compatibility

Consult canonical skill-catalog.json only when the separately authorized tracker change alters cross-skill routing policy. Regenerate its views through skill-governance/scripts/generate_routing_views.py; do not hand-edit docs/skill-index.md or update routing merely because a directive was recorded.

Output

When a ledger was actually changed, report:

1. canonical path used
2. current directives added or changed
3. lifecycle and fulfillment transitions
4. evidence recorded
5. stale, blocked, or superseded items requiring attention